In Your Dreams
by sweetsyphn
Summary: Draco's lack of concentration making a potion leads to a strange side effect which brings him closer to a certain gryffindor


**In your Dreams**

**Disclaimer**** – I don't own anything Harry Potter. Except maybe a small obsession.**

**Chapter 1 – Dream on**

"Stir widdershins 29 times, wait for 3 ½ minutes and stir diesel 87 times. Leave to simmer for 5 minutes before extinguishing flame. Imbibe potion 8 hours before you want it to take effect.

IMPORTANT NOTE – this potion directly affects brainwaves and cognitive thought patterns, therefore in the making of the potion it is essential to keep a clear mind and concentrate solely on the potion"

Draco looked up from the book strewn across his desk. As would be expected to anybody that knew him or knew of him, Draco Malfoy favoured the empty room with a trademark smirk. 'Ironic,' he thought to himself, 'that you can not daydream while making this of all potions.'

To describe what Draco looked like would be an exercise of wasting time because everyone in the wizarding world knew what Draco Malfoy looked like and anyone who wasn't didn't matter to him anyway.

To put it plainly, he was the biggest bastard of Hogwarts and it's a role he took great pleasure in playing. Unimportant people just didn't matter to him, which was most people and the lucky few that were deemed important spent most of their time trying to impress him anyway. This was Draco's life and he loved it.

Well almost all of it. For as long as Draco could remember he had had a recurring nightmare. Nothing sinister, quite stupid really, but he'd die before admitting it, it just aggravated him that his sleep was disturbed so often. This is why he was stuck in doors on the last day of the summer brewing a potion in his bedroom.

'15…16…17…And to think Snape thought I wouldn't be able to brew this potion; it's well within my capability. Not like its hard… Argh!! Clear your head, dolt … 28 … 29' Draco lounged in his chair inspecting the dark blue potion while waiting for the allotted time to pass. 'Well, when I said not hard, I meant not hard for me, of course it would be too complex for Potter and his limited intelligence… sometimes I look at everyone that's not me and feel sorry for them…Oh come on Draco, it's not that hard to stop getting distracted!' He looked down at the potion he was now stirring. '31 … 32… 33… I rock, I really do, sometimes my own brilliance even astounds myself… 41…42 … My intelligence surpasses everyone, even Granger would fall to the floor and be amazed at my superiority… 56 .. 57…' Berating himself Draco cleared his mind a final time and continued stirring the potion.

After extinguishing the flame Draco smiled to himself. He poured the stodgy potion into a goblet. He frowned for a second before deciding that he was not about to be deterred by the look of the potion. He grasped the goblet and threw the potion into his mouth. The burning sensation was quickly overcome by the silky soft cooling sensation that followed. The clock struck noon and Draco realised his mistake. The book had said 8 hours. Draco cocked an eyebrow.

"Well, I guess I'm having an early night."

----------

The sunlight streamed through the windows lighting the entire room. Birds sang outside and faint sounds of children enjoying the late afternoon floated in to the room.

'Afternoon, that's exactly what this is' thought Draco grimly to himself. He remembered the strange look on his fathers face when he announced at 7.30 that he wanted an early night. Closing his eyes he tried to wait as patiently as he could for the potion to take effect.

Sighing with impatience Draco swung his legs out of bed and stood up. He walked over to the door and opened it. His faced paled so that his skin was almost death white as he looked out on the familiar corridor; his nightmare had returned. He slammed the door and leaned against it.

'Alright potion, time to make yourself worth my time. I'm thinking … Beach.' Opening the door a second time Draco grinned at the stretch of sand in front of him. He walked leisurely forward as his bedroom faded away. Looking at his attire, blue pyjamas with little yellow ducks across them, Draco decided it wasn't appropriate for his surroundings. He felt a shift and cried out when a breeze alerted to him to the fact that his pyjamas had disappeared but nothing had appeared to replace them.

'Oh, come on! Some swimming trunks would be appreciated!' Smirking he walked on in his newly acquired trunks and lay down on a sun bed that had conveniently appeared. Gazing around, he decided that his dream was rather flat. 'Nothing wrong with a little in-flight entertainment' conjuring up an image of all of the girls in Hogwarts in his year he lined them up in front of him wearing hula skirts. Grimacing slightly he realised that he should have been more selective. Millicent Bulstrode was quickly removed along with Eloise Midgen and various others. Draco looked at the remaining girls, satisfied that they were all pretty enough, when he noticed Hermione Granger among their ranks.

'Can't be having that,' he thought absently as she too vanished from the dream. A smirking Draco lay back on the sun bed to enjoy the show.

----------

Draco sighed contentedly. When he'd woken up that morning he'd felt like he'd slept for a week. He couldn't remember a time when he'd had a better nights sleep. A bang made him look up, but it was only Crabbe and Goyle's game of exploding snap, Crabbe was grinning despite singed eyebrows as he reached for the pile of cards between him and his opponent. Draco looked around at the train compartment that they had claimed as their own for 6 years in a row now, wishing there was something interesting to do. His conversation with his friends about how all of their summers had gone had fallen flat a mere hour into the day-long train ride. In years past they had entertained themselves by taunting students, both in lower and higher years, but somehow it didn't seem to have the appeal it once held. Maybe he was growing soft, or maybe he was just growing up. After all, he smiled, he was still the biggest bastard around and didn't plan on falling short this year. He was a Malfoy and a Malfoy always had to have three things, power, respect and fear. Awe was always nice, but not necessarily compulsory.

"Draco?"

"Yeah?"

"You ok?"

"Erm, yeah. Why?"

"I dunno" Both Crabbe and Goyle were looking at him, "you were just sitting there … grinning."

"Oh, right." Draco leaned back in his seat before jumping up quickly, "you know what? Let's do something interesting."

Crabbe and Goyle looked at each other before turning to stare at Draco.

"Like what?" asked Crabbe

"Yeah, we're on a train, kinda limited options here Draco." Added Goyle, sharing another sidelong glance with Crabbe.

"We could go and cause some trouble with Potter and his mates. That's always good to fill time." suggested Goyle. Draco cast his thoughts back to last year when they had had to be fetched off the train at platform 9 and ¾ by their parents after all the spells that Potter and his stupid 'Dumbledore's Army' had cast on them.

"Maybe we'll just leave it." With a sound of frustration Draco flopped back down onto the seat. God, he'd been so humiliated last summer, he really needed to get Potter back for that one. Staring sightlessly at the wall opposite, he wished he could just walk up to Potter and punch him right in the middle of that stupid scar. He smiled as he imagined which public places would be the best if he could smack Potter. The Great Hall? No people would be distracted and might miss it. In a lesson? No there weren't enough people to be worth the trouble. Where could he be sure that everyone was watching? Smirking to himself he tilted his head back and let the daydream come to him.

----------

"Random…"

"What is?"

Harry looked over at his friends as if he'd forgotten they were there. They were on the Hogwarts Express, having just changed into their school robes.

"Nothing, I guess" Harry sighed, "just had a weird thought"

Ron went white and whispered "is it….is it _him_?" not taking in the sharp look Hermione gave him.

"By 'him', do you mean _Voldemort_, Ron?" she asked scathingly, "fear of the name only increases fear of the person, that's what Professor-"

"I just don't like saying it, ok?"

Harry looked around the compartment and was very glad they'd managed to find one all to themselves this year. He smiled at his two best friends. The compartment door slid open at that exact time and Harry found himself wondering why they never seemed to have anytime to themselves. Neville walked in the compartment, closely followed by Ginny and Luna,

"Hey guys, we were looking for you." They trudged in and sat in the spare seats. Hermione moved Crookshanks off the seat next to her and onto the top of her trunk to accommodate them. Harry smiled slightly as he listened to Luna's insistence that Crookshanks' hair was almost certainly covered in tiny beings of superior intelligence that planned to take over the magical world by holding all pets hostage.

----------

As the Hogwarts Express slowed to a halt at Hogsmeade station, yelps could be heard as the train suddenly tilted heavily to the left. Draco looked out of his compartment in confusion and saw heads popping out of all the other doorways.

"Just push him!"

"Ow, that _hurt, _Ron."

"He can't help it, Hermione, just grab his trunk."

"Excuse me?"

"Just _do it_, Hermione!"

"He's so big though!"

"He's the size of a fully matured male elephant, you expect him to be small?"

"Ok, ok. Why aren't those three helping though? Neville, come and give us a hand, will you?"

Draco walked down the corridor towards the voices, though it didn't take a genius to figure out that Potter was at the centre of it somewhere. The berk, the brain and the beggar, always coming up with their own special ways to annoy him. As he progressed down the corridor, he saw a very large, very green shape trying to squash itself out of a compartment on the left. Granger was already in the hallway, tugging on something, while Potter, Longbottom, Loony and the female Weasel pushed from the inside.

"Is that… an elephant?" asked Goyle, coming up beside him.

"It's green," said Crabbe, who was squinting up at the commotion.

"How astute of you," drawled Draco, setting off towards the ridiculous scene, calling out as walked "Hey, Basilisk bait!"

Hermione turned her head, then ignored him and went back to tugging on the green elephant's trunk.

"Yes Granger, I _was_ referring to you, do you see any other mudbloods around?"

"Get lost, Malfoy" she spat, "can't you see I'm busy. Go repulse someone else."

"Busy, are we? Is this your boyfriend?" Draco turned and addressed the elephant, "with her on a pity date, are you? Careful, you don't know where she could've been."

There was a green flash, and in the place of the elephant was a very angry Ron Weasley

"You can piss right off, Malfoy" he said, as Potter and the rest of the cavalry came through the compartment door.

"My, my. Watch that language of yours, Weasel. Your mother would wash your mouth out, and we don't want her spending _precious_ gold on soap now, do we?"

"Oh, you are gonna get it, Malfoy!" Ron said, withdrawing his wand.

"Go for it, I think we all know which one of us will end up throwing up slugs though, don't you think?" Draco turned and headed back to Crabbe and Goyle, who were waiting further up the hall.

"Did your father like the fact that you had to be fetched off the train as something resembling a slug _yourself_ last year?" Potter yelled after him.

Draco smirked as he turned around "I can't say he much cared, Potter. They're great like that, _parents_."

----------

"Morphing Mints"

"What?" asked Draco

"Morphing Mints," Crabbe repeated, "Weasley must've had one, which would've turned him into that elephant."

"Oh yeah. You can get that at Weasley's Wizard Wheezes" said Goyle, "very reasonably priced."

Draco stared at them.

"Not that we, err, buy any of their products or anything," intersected Crabbe hastily.

"Oh, no. Definitely not," Goyle shook his head.

"Why was he green?"

"Oh the colours all change, you don't know which animal you'll get, but the wrapper shows which colour it'll be. Weasley must've picked a green one."

They were in the Great Hall for the welcome feast. Crabbe and Goyle, who preferred to remain quiet in public, but were happily talking now that they were surrounded only by fellow Slytherins. Pansy sat opposite them and the two empty chairs that had been left on one side of her had been filled by two first year boys, fresh from the sorting hat.

"Oh my God," whispered one of them, frantically nudging the other, "look who it is!"

Draco continued eating without looking up, but smirked to himself as he stuck his fork into his mashed potato.

"Oh, wow!" the other exclaimed, "I didn't think we'd be so close to him on the first day. I can even see his scar from here!"

There was a clatter and both boys looked up to see a blond boy fuming and the table on either side of his plate splattered with gravy.

"You don't know what you just did to him" the girl next to them said with a smile.

The first years looked at each other and one of them ventured to ask, "Who is he?"

----------

The next morning Draco was greatly cheered when he happened to overhear two first year girls trying to decide if he was _the_ Draco Malfoy, or whether he was just lucky enough to look like him. Finally deciding that he was indeed a Malfoy the girls quickly ran off to tell their friends who they'd been eating breakfast near to. Draco was really pleased about this, so pleased in fact, that he completely failed to register one Pansy Parkinson sliping the girls ten sickles each for their troubles. Crabbe and Goyle just grinned at each other, continuing with their breakfast and conveniently forgetting what they'd seen.

**A.N.**** this is it for the first chapter. Rowling said that a Galleon is worth about £5, so with 17 sickles to one Galleon, a sickle is worth approximately 30p, so 10 sickles is about £3 ($6)**


End file.
